There is an idea traveling the world which is called “writer’s block”.
What is fascinating about this idea is, that it has become an accepted condition.
But wait, it is only writers who seem to experience this obstacle. It’s difficult to imagine, that a plumber would experience plumber’s block.
Only writers experience this block. Writer’s block thus isn’t linked to creativity. Would it be a creative block, other artists would be subject to artist’s block.
Some have started to call it a meme.
Looking at the description of the condition it simply looks like “life”. A way to reason why someone could not continue to write. In other words, an excuse to stop.
The myth linked to the idea of writer’s block is, that there is some external cause stopping us from doing our work. The logic of such thinking is that it helps us avoid failure when we are afraid of it. When setting out to write a book, our perception of failure can be quite intense. It often is as solitary work we do for long weeks until we release it into the open. Showing up and saying “here I made this” then becomes a daunting task. Another way to see failure at the horizon might be linked to the idea we have of our work. Comparing each line we write with our imagination of how we should be able to write becomes a dance with self-doubt.
We live in a world in which those who succeed shine a bright light. What we see is their success, we don’t see their struggles nor their journey. Success has become so important, that those who learn and those who struggle seem to be invisible.
Thinking happens. We still have all experienced situations in which thinking seemed slower or didn’t give us the answers we wanted. As thinking always starts again, we wouldn’t talk about “Thinker’s block”. We wouldn’t survive without thinking. We react to those situations with “I don’t understand”, “I’m lost” or “I’m tired”. We reach out to others for help. We find ways to regenerate our ability to think. We also find ways to learn how changing our thinking process will help us in the future.
When we know that we can’t do without, we find a solution and show up.
